June 19th, 2009 by andum | Posted in Site Update
Please note that 15 Minutes to Riches is now Wealth Itself. If you are looking for a post, please go to the site Archives. All posts except for "15 Awesome Reasons to Work From Home" are available for your review (this post is no longer available on the site). Thanks for visiting.
I have decided that Wealth Itself will only work as a blog with frequent posts (daily is my goal). Accordingly, I am taking time from posting infrequently as I study in order to take a more active role in managing my own investments. Last year, we decided to work with a financial planner and rollover my 401K to a passively managed set of diversified funds. After suffering a considerable loss (along with everyone else), I started to question the wisdom of ignoring macroeconomic issues (buy and hold) and our diversification plan. I think that once I return to posting I will have some useful things to say about investing. Oh, and I also have to allow time to complete my work for pay and follow baseball.
Permanent link to this post (127 words, estimated 30 secs reading time)
May 12th, 2009 by andum | Posted in Economy, Stock Market, Wealth Preservation
Last October I pulled some retirement funds out of the market and moved them into a money market fund. I couldn’t bear to watch the shrinking balance, especially when the economic news seemed so dire. I decided I would rather preserve the reduced balance rather than take a chance that there was more pain to follow (there was). Since then I decided to spend more time reading about the economy, both optimistic and pessimistic viewpoints. My opinion, based on this reading, continues towards believing that there is more bad news looming for the economy - even in the presence of the ongoing stock market rally. It is difficult to think differently based on the new release of the US Treasury Monthly Statement (see document here ). Receipts for April 2009 - the month that typically results in the largest inflow of the year - was 34% less than April 2008 (see Table below). Receipts for what should be the best income month of the year for the US government were less than government outlays (as has every month since September 2008). This number suggests that the deficit estimates are probably optimistic (even after the upward revision this week), that the dollar will weaken and that the threat of inflation will start to play an even more prominent role in investor psyche. (credit to The Automatic Earth / Alea)
May 5th, 2009 by andum | Posted in Blogging, Site Update
April 2009 Site Update
Last month I posted the first monthly Wealth Itself progress update. Today I am posting the second update. I intend to continue to report the key site stats as I think that there are a few people who will be interested and it forces me to review the goals and objectives of the site.
Expenses = $0
- No new expenses incurred.
Income = $47.75
- I have sold a six month ad for $50.00, yielding $47.75 after PayPal fees.
Blogging
- I participated in another blogging carnival at Ask Mr Credit Card.
- My post on saving money through selecting alternative energy suppliers was linked to by two blogs, including an MSM Money blog which sent 32 visitors in April.
- Google has ranked my posts on eyeglasses highly and has sent many visitors to the site.
- Visitors:
- 244 first time visitors, up from 174 for March
- 18 visitors on the peak day
- 25 returning visitors, a significant increase from the 4 returning visitors recorded in March
- 371 pageloads, up from 234 pageloads in March
- Comments - none
- RSS subscribers (Feedburner) = 5, an increase from 4 in March
April 30th, 2009 by andum | Posted in Economy, Uncategorized
In the ongoing attempt by Google to provide access to all of the world’s information, Google has introduced a new search feature. Google will now return interactive charts of unemployment rates and population using US government data. You can access these charts entering ‘unemployment rate’ or ‘population’, followed by US, a state or a county. The above image shows the unemployment rates for the US and two counties. I lived in Duval county in the 1990s when unemployment was very low - I am surprised that the unemployment rate now exceeds the US average rate. I also lived in Roanoke county in the early 2000s. Roanoke county was known for it’s stable economy. The graphic shows that the recession has likely spared very few communities in the US.
Although one has to be concerned about Google’s virtual monoply on search, tools such as providing access to government data can only be seen positively. I have spent some time looking at government data and soon realized that I could spend hours trying to generate simple charts. Google promises that this access to unemployment rates and population figuress is just the beginning to providing more access to government data.
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April 21st, 2009 by andum | Posted in Buying Online, Save Money, Vision Care, Wealth Enjoyment, Wealth Preservation
photo credit: net_efekt
Some visitors have found my previous post on buying eyeglasses online because they were searching for help in figuring out why they could not see with the glasses that they had purchased online or they wanted help with measuring their PD. In this post I will list some of the reasons why your vision might not be best with your new glasses and help you troubleshoot. I also have included some links at the end of this post that will help you measure your PD accurately.
Before you read further … it is always a good idea to figure out if your vision is poor with one or both eyes. To check this, alternately cover each eye and compare the vision with each eye while looking at distance or near - where ever you may be having a problem.
Prescription is Not Correct
Consider this a possibility if the new pair of glasses is your first pair with the new prescription. If there was an error in determining your prescription or when writing it down, it is more likely that one eye is wrong than both eyes. If you suspect that the prescription is wrong, you will have to return to the eye doctor that provided you with the new prescription or find a new doctor.
April 18th, 2009 by andum | Posted in Economy
Chris Wilson at Slate has published a very impressive interactive graphic of job gains and losses from January 2007 through February 2009. I have pasted the January 2007 map, which is mostly blue indicating job gains and the February 2009 map, which is mostly red, indicating job losses. Please go here to see this graphic of job changes on a month by month basis and note the dramatic increase in red (job losses) that started in October 2008. (credit to paul.kedrosky.com)
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April 8th, 2009 by andum | Posted in Wealth Enjoyment, Whimsy
There has been a lot of buzz about investing in gold. This post at Business Pundit is the first post that I have seen about eating gold. (credit to The Presurfer)
Permanent link to this post (33 words, 1 image, estimated 8 secs reading time)
April 4th, 2009 by andum | Posted in Blogging, Site Update
March 2009 Site Update
I have always been drawn to blogger’s posts when they review the relative success of their site. If you have a similar interest, please continue reading. As a monthly feature, I will be providing a brief overview of visitors, post activity, income, expenses and key insights I have gained in developing Wealth Itself.
Expenses = $380.29
- I purchased the site during March for $299.00 on Sitepoint via an auction. I purchased a site rather than starting a new site for the following reasons:
- I thought that it would minimize the WordPress learning curve. With a limited technical background, I couldn’t quite imagine starting from scratch. I think that I made the right decision, although I have spent hours understanding how the site works and making changes. The prior owner was very cooperative during and after the transfer.
- I wanted a site with some presence in the search engines. The site continues to get visitors because of articles and activities of the prior owner. After changing the domain name, the site was indexed by google within days. On April 1st, the PageRank of 1 of the prior site was assigned to Wealth Itself. Sometimes, it can take months to get a PageRank value assigned for a new site.
- Domain registration fees = $33.86. This is for two names, one abandoned, both with privacy registration.
- Host fees = $47.43 for one partial month and one year paid in advance.
Income = None
- I have included ads and links from Google Adsense, Commission Junction and Amazon.
- One link remains on the site that was sold by the prior owner; I agreed to keep this link as a condition of the sale of the site.
Blogging
- In addition to the two posts announcing changes to the site, in March I posted three original articles.
- I participated in one blogging carnival at MoneyNing.
- Visitors (tracking began on March 18th):
- 174 first time visitors
- 40 on peak day (due to my post on the the blogging carnival)
- 4 returning visitors
- 234 pageloads
